Phys.org news tagged with:spacecrafthttp://phys.org/
en-usPhys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine.Juno mission prepares for December 11 Jupiter flybyOn Sunday, December 11, at 9:04 a.m. PST (12:04 p.m. EST, 17:04 UTC) NASA's Juno spacecraft will make its third science flyby of Jupiter.http://phys.org/news/2016-12-juno-mission-december-jupiter-flyby.html
Space Exploration Fri, 09 Dec 2016 18:51:55 ESTnews400531901NASA scientists see asteroid through the eyes of a robotRetrieving an asteroid sample is no easy task. Doing the job blindfolded is even more challenging. That's why scientists equipped the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft with a set of eyes to watch it all unfold.http://phys.org/news/2016-12-nasa-scientists-asteroid-eyes-robot.html
Space Exploration Thu, 08 Dec 2016 07:40:01 ESTnews400405016ESA to supply service module for first crewed Orion missionESA and NASA are extending their collaboration in human space exploration following confirmation that Europe will supply a second Service Module to support the first crewed mission of the Orion spacecraft.http://phys.org/news/2016-12-esa-module-crewed-orion-mission.html
Space Exploration Thu, 08 Dec 2016 06:46:11 ESTnews400401961Cassini transmits first images from new orbitNASA's Cassini spacecraft has sent to Earth its first views of Saturn's atmosphere since beginning the latest phase of its mission. The new images show scenes from high above Saturn's northern hemisphere, including the planet's intriguing hexagon-shaped jet stream.http://phys.org/news/2016-12-cassini-transmits-images-orbit.html
Space Exploration Wed, 07 Dec 2016 07:30:56 ESTnews400318229It's been a turbulent start, but Juno is now delivering spectacular insights into JupiterThere was much excitement when the Juno spacecraft successfully arrived at Jupiter in July, after a five-year journey through the solar system. A perfect engine firing placed the solar-powered spacecraft into just the right orbit around the gas giant, with the promise of great discoveries to come.http://phys.org/news/2016-12-turbulent-juno-spectacular-insights-jupiter.html
Space Exploration Mon, 05 Dec 2016 09:30:02 ESTnews400152096NASA spacecraft embarks on ring-skimming mission at SaturnConsider it a cosmic carousel with countless rings up for grabs.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-nasa-spacecraft-embarks-ring-skimming-mission.html
Space Exploration Wed, 30 Nov 2016 14:34:34 ESTnews399738869Cassini prepares for 'ring-grazing orbits'A thrilling ride is about to begin for NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Engineers have been pumping up the spacecraft's orbit around Saturn this year to increase its tilt with respect to the planet's equator and rings. And on Nov. 30, following a gravitational nudge from Saturn's moon Titan, Cassini will enter the first phase of the mission's dramatic endgame.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-cassini-ring-grazing-orbits.html
Space Exploration Tue, 22 Nov 2016 17:09:51 ESTnews399056985How bad is the radiation on Mars?Human exploration of Mars has been ramping up in the past few decades. In addition to the eight active missions on or around the Red Planet, seven more robotic landers, rovers and orbiters are scheduled to be deployed there by the end of the decade. And by the 2030s and after, several space agencies are planning to mount crewed missions to the surface as well.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-bad-mars.html
Space Exploration Mon, 21 Nov 2016 09:11:08 ESTnews398941853Video: Chinese space greetingsAstronauts on Chinese space station Tiangong-2 greet ESA and Thomas Pesquet. This video was recorded inside the Chinese space station Tiangong-2 by astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong. The duo landed safely on Earth on 18 November after spending a month orbiting Earth. A few hours before their descent, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet was launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-video-chinese-space.html
Space Exploration Mon, 21 Nov 2016 06:42:35 ESTnews398932947Russian spaceship delivers three astronauts to space station (Update) Russia's Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, carrying a European, a Russian and an American astronaut for a six-month mission at the orbiting outpost.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-russian-spaceship-astronauts-space-station.html
Space Exploration Sat, 19 Nov 2016 18:08:46 ESTnews398801321New Ceres views as Dawn moves higherThe brightest area on Ceres stands out amid shadowy, cratered terrain in a dramatic new view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, taken as it looked off to the side of the dwarf planet. Dawn snapped this image on Oct. 16, from its fifth science orbit, in which the angle of the sun was different from that in previous orbits. Dawn was about 920 miles (1,480 kilometers) above Ceres when this image was taken—an altitude the spacecraft had reached in early October.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-ceres-views-dawn-higher.html
Space Exploration Sat, 19 Nov 2016 05:58:33 ESTnews398757499Student fascinated with comets devises a strategy for defending earth from potential impactGrowing up in the California desert, Qicheng Zhang developed an early appreciation for stars and the universal expanse beyond the sky. But his biggest space curiosity by far was with comets, those celestial bodies of ice, gas and dust, leftovers from the long-ago formation of stars and planets.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-student-fascinated-comets-strategy-defending.html
Space Exploration Thu, 17 Nov 2016 07:37:37 ESTnews398590650NASA microthrusters achieve success on ESA's LISA pathfinderA next-generation technology demonstration mission has just passed a big milestone.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-nasa-microthrusters-success-esa-lisa.html
Space Exploration Thu, 17 Nov 2016 06:25:03 ESTnews398586295Data from New Horizons mission suggest a water-ice ocean lies beneath Pluto's heart-shaped basinBeneath Pluto's "heart" lies a cold, slushy ocean of water ice, according to data from NASA's New Horizons mission. In a paper published today in the journal Nature, the New Horizons team, including researchers from MIT, reports that the dwarf planet's most prominent surface feature—a heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio—may harbor a bulging, viscous, liquid ocean just below its surface.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-horizons-mission-water-ice-ocean-lies.html
Space Exploration Wed, 16 Nov 2016 13:00:04 ESTnews398505204Far away, so closeDuring the last few weeks of its mission, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft ventured closer than it had ever been to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Eventually, it came to rest on the surface in a daring descent on 30 September 2016.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-far-away-so-close.html
Space Exploration Mon, 14 Nov 2016 08:33:51 ESTnews398334823Watching summer clouds on TitanNASA's Cassini spacecraft watched clouds of methane moving across the far northern regions of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, on Oct. 29 and 30, 2016.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-summer-clouds-titan.html
Space Exploration Mon, 07 Nov 2016 07:20:20 ESTnews397725583Prototype capture system, mock asteroid help simulate mission sequenceA prototype of the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) robotic capture module system is tested with a mock asteroid boulder in its clutches at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The robotic portion of ARM is targeted for launch in 2021.http://phys.org/news/2016-11-prototype-capture-mock-asteroid-simulate.html
Space Exploration Wed, 02 Nov 2016 06:23:30 ESTnews397286601Spacecraft sends back last bit of data from 2015 Pluto flybyNASA's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the last bit of data from its 2015 flyby of Pluto.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-spacecraft-bit-pluto-flyby.html
Space Exploration Fri, 28 Oct 2016 13:10:11 ESTnews396879007Launch of three astronauts to ISS postponedThe launch next month of a Soyuz spacecraft carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station has been postponed by 48 hours, Russia's space agency said Friday, reportedly to ensure better docking conditions.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-astronauts-iss-postponed.html
Space Exploration Fri, 28 Oct 2016 08:54:55 ESTnews396863692New Horizons returns last bits of 2015 flyby data to EarthNASA's New Horizons mission reached a major milestone this week when the last bits of science data from the Pluto flyby – stored on the spacecraft's digital recorders since July 2015 – arrived safely on Earth.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-horizons-bits-flyby-earth.html
Space Exploration Fri, 28 Oct 2016 06:30:56 ESTnews396855046International Space Station passes by Venus and SaturnLook west in the evening sky and Venus is almost impossible to miss, shining with a brilliant steady light. In fact, it is so bright it's often mistaken for a plane.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-international-space-station-venus-saturn.html
Space Exploration Thu, 27 Oct 2016 07:02:20 ESTnews396770533Dream coming true for ISS-bound rookie French astronautFirst-time French astronaut Thomas Pesquet said Wednesday he was thrilled to go to space with two veterans from Russia and US, though slightly worried that they wouldn't like his saxophone music.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-true-iss-bound-rookie-french-astronaut.html
Space Exploration Wed, 26 Oct 2016 16:23:58 ESTnews396717833NASA's tool for calculating orbital trajectories now aids in spacecraft designA NASA-developed tool that private industry and other agency centers now use to plot a mission's path to far-flung interplanetary destinations has gotten significantly more proficient and can now even reveal—sometimes in just a matter of minutes—the specifics of the spacecraft's mission and elements of the system design.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-nasa-tool-orbital-trajectories-aids.html
Space Exploration Wed, 26 Oct 2016 12:03:56 ESTnews396702228STEREO—10 years of revolutionary solar viewsLaunched 10 years ago, on Oct. 25, 2006, the twin spacecraft of NASA's STEREO mission – short for Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory – have given us unprecedented views of the sun, including the first-ever simultaneous view of the entire star at once. This kind of comprehensive data is key to understanding how the sun erupts with things like coronal mass ejections and energetic particles, as well as how those events move through space, sometimes impacting Earth and other worlds. Ten years ago, the twin STEREO spacecraft joined a fleet of NASA spacecraft monitoring the sun and its influence on Earth and space – and they provided a new and unique perspective.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-stereo10-years-revolutionary-solar-views.html
Space Exploration Wed, 26 Oct 2016 08:50:01 ESTnews396690442Image: Changing colors in Saturn's poleThese two natural color images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show the changing appearance of Saturn's north polar region between 2012 and 2016.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-image-saturn-pole.html
Space Exploration Wed, 26 Oct 2016 06:19:23 ESTnews396681556OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in good health after testing its thrustersNASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft continues its so far flawless journey to asteroid Bennu, after successfully completing its first trajectory correction maneuver (TCM-1) on Oct. 7. According to the mission's deputy principal investigator, the probe is currently in good health and all of its instruments are working properly.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-osiris-rex-spacecraft-good-health-thrusters.html
Space Exploration Wed, 26 Oct 2016 06:18:13 ESTnews396681485Going out in a blaze of glory—Cassini's grand finaleWith the conclusion of the international Cassini mission set for September 15, 2017, the spacecraft is poised to soon begin a thrilling two-part endgame.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-blaze-glorycassini-grand.html
Space Exploration Fri, 21 Oct 2016 09:50:01 ESTnews396260563Cassini sees dramatic seasonal changes on TitanAs southern winter solstice approaches in the Saturn system, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been revealing dramatic seasonal changes in the atmospheric temperature and composition of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-cassini-seasonal-titan.html
Space Exploration Fri, 21 Oct 2016 06:50:01 ESTnews396251303Image: Expedition 49 launch to the International Space StationThe Soyuz MS-02 rocket is launched with Expedition 49 Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos, flight engineer Shane Kimbrough of NASA, and flight engineer Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, at 4:05 a.m. EDT Wednesday (2:05 p.m. Baikonur time). The Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to dock to the Poisk module of the space station at 5:59 a.m. Friday, Oct. 21.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-image-international-space-station.html
Space Exploration Thu, 20 Oct 2016 08:00:01 ESTnews396168704Astronomers predict possible birthplace of Rosetta cometWhen the Rosetta spacecraft successfully touched down on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Sept. 30, the news was shared globally via Twitter in dozens of languages. Citizens the world over were engaged by the astronomical achievement, and now the European Space Agency and NASA are eager to learn as much as possible about the critically important celestial body of ice.http://phys.org/news/2016-10-astronomers-birthplace-rosetta-comet.html
Space Exploration Thu, 20 Oct 2016 07:52:36 ESTnews396168744